How Nashville played role in 'EA Sports College Football 25' musical soundtrack

A white gym shoe danced against the black legs holding up Steve Schnur's chair on a mid-March Saturday morning inside Studio A at Ocean Way Nashville.

His head simultaneously bobbed in agreement with his right foot. His eyes closed momentarily. His ears inhaled each note of music the orchestra in front of him played.

"I like it," said Schnur, the worldwide executive and president of music for Electronic Arts, the largest producer of video games in the world. "That's what I'm going for."

Schnur was putting some finishing touches on the theme song and musical track for the much-anticipated summer release of "College Football 25," EA's first college football title since "NCAA Football 14" in 2013. The day came on the heels of Schnur and EA putting together "the greatest, highest quality of (college) fight songs on the planet Earth."

He was talking to the ensemble assembled inside the old building on 17th Avenue South, a group three rows deep that was situated behind a thick pane of glass 100 or so feet in front of Schnur.

"Love the energy, everybody," said Schnur's orchestrator David Shipps, who then turned to his left to Schnur and whispered, "Even though it doesn't sound like it in my voice."

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Once again, Nashville's music scene plays a vital role in a video game, just like it did in 2019 when the music for "Madden 20" was recorded in the same studio and written by the same artist, recent Grammy Award winner Kris Bowers.

"Ten-plus years ago we were trying to convince the world that we truly are Music City and not just Country Music City," Schnur said. "We don't have to convince anybody anymore."

Schnur has been in his position with EA since 2001 and has overseen more than 50 soundtracks for the company. His musical vision has touched such EA franchises as NHL, NBA, Madden, FIFA and NASCAR, which subsequently helped kickstart the careers of artists such as Fall Out Boy, Imagine Dragons, Katy Perry, Kings of Leon and The Weeknd.

Schnur also has overseen the production of more than 50 soundtrack albums, with original scores for games such as "The Sims" and "Star Wars: Battlefront and Medal of Honor."

"College football is back," Schnur said. "Through EA Sports, and with every great franchise, comes a great, sticky, memorable theme, whether that be film, television or games themselves.

"The one thing that, frankly, we lacked in the previous iterations of college football at EA was something so memorable that you would know it, hear it and hum it, even after you were done playing the game."

'Eventually nostalgic to your soul'

Sunlight sprayed through the stained glass windows of the church-turned-recording studio, the rays finding their way to the tips of trombones, trumpets and tubas, and to the stems of saxophones.

The "memorable, eventually nostalgic to your soul" Schnur was looking for escaped from those instruments that morning.

Steve Patrick, one of the most recorded trumpet players in the world — more than 7,000 sessions — was among those helping deliver the music to Schnur's ears. Patrick often performs with the Nashville Symphony and has played Carnegie Hall several times.

"It's cool when it's something like this," said Patrick, whose horn can be heard on such games as "Call of Duty" and "Halo." "Especially years ago, when my kids were a little younger, playing video games all the time."

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Will Leathers, who is principle trumpet for the Nashville Symphony and a product of The Julliard School, also was playing. His interest in the instrument stems from his father and his grandfather, who bought his first trumpet at the end of World War II, for two cartons of cigarettes.

"You never know when there's an opportunity to jump at something, what it's going to mean five, 10 years from now," Leathers said of being involved with the game.

Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina. Follow his work here.